Ashes to Ashes
by Idrelle Miocovani
Summary: Where faith and religion failed, there was Africa.


**A/N:** I'm currently experimenting with a style of writing called a "50 Sentences" challenge – you are given a table of fifty prompts and have to write _one_ sentence to go with each prompt. Naturally, sometimes the grammar gets a bit flimsy, but it's a fun exercise. For 2011, I am writing a series of 50 Sentences challenges (four per month) covering many different fandoms and characters. Since I couldn't find a decent category to put the series in (this really isn't a crossover, so the crossover options are out), I am posting each entry separately in its own fandom. This is the seventh ficlet in the series, and if you'd like to keep track of them, there's an index in my profile listing the titles and fandoms of them all.

Thanks for reading!

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**Ashes to Ashes**

**1. Miracle**

Despite the brutality of the world-wearied white man to whom he was inextricably bound, Solomon knew the only way he would see his family again was through Archer – and that made the smuggler seem like a miracle.

**2. Dearly**

Coetzee knew what he wanted, what he needed – and it did not matter if he killed one of his own below to get it.

**3. Push**

Archer swore at her and stormed off, but Maddy followed anyway; she would get the proof she needed, and she would eventually find the right words to get him to talk – she was a print journalist and words were her speciality.

**4. Between**

There was one thing that stood between him and his freedom, and once he had it he would turn away Africa and never look back.

**5. Knowing**

Solomon saw the priceless necklace within the glass display case and was entranced – not by its beauty, but the horror of what it represented.

**6. Coax**

"I'll get you your money, I just need more time."

**7. Unlikely**

Maybe her article would pull at a few heartstrings, maybe it would nudge some people's awareness, but Maddy sincerely doubted many people back home in America would understand the truth behind her words – and _do_ something about it.

**8. Flatter**

"Christ, you Americans shouldn't flatter yourselves – you're just as responsible for this mess as the rest of the world."

**9. Court**

"Don't judge by assuming you know what it's like – not until you've lived through it, ja?"

**10. Worthy**

After witnessing what men could – would – do to each other, Archer knew they were not worthy of something as hopeful and promising as God.

**11. Hesitant**

The child stood still, watching, confused, unsure of what to think, unsure of what to feel, knowing there was only one option: raise the gun and pull the trigger, because no one else would.

**12. Yield**

So many days spent, so many miles walked, and the goal still so far away – a part of Solomon's mind wondered whether his son would still be alive by the time he reached him.

**13. Remember**

Maddy flipped through the photos in her hotel room, searching for the right ones to publish – and all the while, there was a lump in her throat and her eyes stung.

**14. Familiarity**

At the end of the day, every job was the same – shoot before they shot you – and it was a cycle with which he was indoctrinated, a way of life he could never truly escape.

**15. Opposites**

The black man was everything he was not, and while it was difficult to shrug away the sense that he was _better_ than him, Archer could not help but feel envious of Solomon – envious for something Solomon had, something Archer never could have, and it had nothing to do with the fucking diamond.

**16. Tokens**

She did it on impulse, trusting her instincts even though she knew it had no point – she scribbled her three phone numbers on a card and passed it to him.

**17. Evoke**

It was unexplainable – so much carnage and death and all for little pieces of stone most of them would never see.

**18. Ananke**

The moon was bright the night following the fall of Freetown and shone happily upon streets turned red with blood.

**19. Temptation**

Maddy had been tempted – very tempted – to take him up on his offer of going back to her place and ransacking the minibar (despite that she had already drunk everything), but now she couldn't decide whether or not she should have acted on that wild impulse.

**20. Realisation**

The pain blossomed through his side as blood seeped from the wound; it was a delayed reaction, and even now his mind was convinced he had not been shot.

**21. Letters**

Maddy read through the small record book Archer had given her and wished she could thank him for real.

**22. Accept**

His son was a good boy, a boy who loved to learn, a boy who wanted to become a doctor, a boy who would grow up to change the world – and Solomon would not accept otherwise.

**23. Fervid**

He saw the intensity in her eyes, the insistence that burned there and knew he would have a hard time getting this journalist off his tail.

**24. Awake**

Dia couldn't sleep – Captain Poison said he had been right to shoot those men, and Dia wanted to believe him, agree with him, make him proud, but deep down he recoiled at the memory of splattered blood on his hands.

**25. Shine**

Diamonds were valued for their beauty in the west, but out here they meant so much more – a way of life and death.

**26. Blush**

Solomon took a moment to appreciate the beauty of each sunset; after all, he never knew which one would be his last.

**27. Avid**

When she was nine, she swore she would change the world – twenty-something later, she was still trying, even though she knew it was a hopeless case.

**28. Beguile**

There were people out there who were spellbound by money, but Archer already knew wealth could not buy happiness – when your life depended on who had what, money was just another way of keeping score.

**29. Dog-house**

There came a point when people stopped killing each other for ideas, they began killing each other for fun – and someone always wanted someone else dead.

**30. Solace**

Where faith and religion failed, there was Africa.

**31. Endearment**

Archer had no qualms when he shot Coetzee – a man he had once nearly considered like a father – in the head.

**32. Tremble**

The links of the fence rattled as Solomon called out the name of his lost son.

**33. Crossroads**

Archer's hands shook, his body racked with pain, as he took one last look at the diamond before passing it to Solomon.

**34. Esteem**

Solomon turned a page of the magazine, finding Archer's photograph – and remembered what had passed on that cliff-face in the African wilderness.

**35. Crave**

He craned his neck and watched as the white man's helicopter flew high above the rich, but ravaged, land.

**36. Capacity**

In the end, even after all he had witnessed, Solomon knew Archer was a good man.

**37. Sustaining**

The diamond mine could not – would not – kill him… not while his family lived.

**38. Leap**

It was a risk – revealing what he knew to Maddy could very well kill him when the right people found out at the wrong time – but she was his only bargaining chip.

**39. Denial**

He wanted to believe there was nothing he could do to change the way things were, that diamonds or no diamonds, Africa would still fall apart – and so, he did.

**40. Gleam**

It's gleam was subdued by a coating of mud and it looked and felt like any other stone, but Solomon knew what it was the moment he touched it.

**41. Reconcile**

Maddy was not pleased to hear Archer was milling about with the reporters, but she knew she had to take this chance to grill him for information.

**42. Porcelain**

To Solomon, London was surreal – it was too pristine, too chaotic, too free, yet here he was.

**43. Quixotic**

"If you really think you can make a difference here, Maddy, you better turn around and get back on your fucking plane right now and fly to America where your pitiful dreams can't bother the rest of us, ja?"

**44. Ups**

Archer was losing his grip and gravity threatened pulled him down the side of the cliff-face – aversely, he grabbed Solomon's proffered hand to stop his fall and allowed himself to be helped up the steep hill.

**45. Downs**

The body tumbled out the window, hitting the ground right before them; Archer pulled Solomon out of the way and they ran down a different road, gunshots pelting the air.

**46. Sickness**

"How can you stand by and do nothing while thousands of innocent people die?" Maddy snapped.

**47. Heath**

Outwardly, Dia was unharmed, but inside there as something broken Solomon feared would never mend.

**48. Youth**

A child soldier was more soldier than child, and therefore, despite their age, the same rules applied – kill them before they killed you.

**49. Maturity**

Dia did not know when he had ceased to be a child, but today – as he rested in his mother's arms on a plane to England – he did not feel like an adult either.

**50. Devotion**

Archer watched his blood mix with the soil and smiled – so this… _this_ was what Africa was… his home, forever.

_fin_


End file.
